The Lily Log

Quiz

April 30, 2005, 10:38 am

Who are these two beautiful people?

a. Aunt JJ and Baby Lily
b. Grandma Hottman and Mama Jeni
c. Princess Diana and Prince Harry

A threat

April 29, 2005, 11:39 am

We were taking a family walk a few days ago, and Noah was riding his tricycle. He rides very fast like a wild man. On the way back to our house, he was looking all around (except for in front of him) and Nathan and I noticed he was about to crash into a vehicle parked on the side of the road. We yelled, "NOAH STOP! STOP!" but of course he didn't hear us (or didn't chose to hear us). So he smashed into the vehicle with his little trike.

Noah wasn't physically hurt, but his pride was obviously damaged. His face turned red, and he started to cry and refused to get up off of the pavement. Nathan picked up his bike and told him to walk home with us. This REALLY made Noah mad. He began one of his tantrums. He screamed out in anger (and I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed his production). He threw his coat dramatically on the ground over and over again while screaming. We were proud.

We told Noah that he was going to time out as soon as we got home. The screaming and crying continued, and then he begrudgingly walked up to his room.

I was putting Lily to sleep when I heard Nathan enter Noah's room to discuss his slightly immature behavior. I heard quite a bit of talking back and forth. When I came out of Lily's room the two of them were happily doing dishes.

Later that night I asked Nathan about their conversation. Nathan told Noah that he has to tell us what he wants and not just scream and throw tantrums. Nathan asked Noah multiple times if he understood what he meant. Noah just looked at Nathan and wouldn't respond.

Finally Noah said, "If you say those words again I'm not going to let you play with my toys or Mama or Lily." Nathan asked, "What words?" Noah said, "Those words you just said!"

So Noah actually THREATENED his Papa. Oh dear. Nathan can be quite stern, and it killed us that he even attempted this. Of course he didn't get away with it...

And if I could add a picture to this entry it would be one of our little blond haired, red faced boy screaming in the middle of the street. I guarantee it would make you laugh.

[ 2 comments ] ( 30 views )

Drama Queen

April 27, 2005, 9:30 pm

People often comment on all of the smiling pictures of Lily that are on this website. It's true, she has a beautiful smile. Her smile lights up her entire face and makes us all feel good.

But I have to be honest, there is another side to Lily. She has a temper like you wouldn't believe. She can go from happy to angry in about 2 seconds. She knows what "no" means, but she doesn't like to hear it.

I present to you...angry Lily:

(I think she got even more angry when I got the camera out)

[ 3 comments ] ( 30 views )

Privacy

April 27, 2005, 5:07 pm

Noah has started dressing himself. Ever since our fashion show (refer to blog in March), he has enjoyed putting shorts on and taking them off. After the fashion show, he would change his shorts many times each day.

During his week in Kansas, I bought him a number of cool shirts. I got him a Spiderman, Superman, and Shreck shirt. This motivated Noah to work on putting shirts on. He wore all three of these shirts many times that day. I had to explain that he needs to wear one shirt each day so that I can keep them clean.

So now Noah dresses himself every morning. Yesterday he came out dressed for school in his Superman shirt, grey jogging pants, and sandals. It was very cold yesterday, so I added socks but let him wear the sandals. He was very proud that he put them on. He told his teacher that day that he dressed himself...even his sandals!

But whenever he gets dressed he must do it alone. He always closes the door and tells me that I must not open it. I hear him talking to himself while he's in there changing his clothes. It takes him a long time to get dressed. I would love to see what's going on. He always gets his shirt and pants on the right way, so he must look for the tags and put them in back.

This morning he told me, "Mom, I'm going to dress. But don't come in. I need PRIVACY."

[ 2 comments ] ( 22 views )

Oh, she's a monster

April 19, 2005, 12:33 pm

Caught on tape:

She wastes toilet paper:

She pushes the pager button on the phone over and over (which makes the phone beep annoyingly):

She destroys magazines (with the Pope's pictures on it no less):

She eats Jack's food:

She wakes up angry:

She crawls away when her Mama tries to dress her:

HaHaHaHaHa!

[ 6 comments ] ( 43 views )

A story from Grandma

April 18, 2005, 8:35 pm

Noah is spending a week with his Grandparents in Kansas. He is having a great time. My Mom called me yesterday and said that she needs to start her own Noah blog. She already has some great stories about Noah and now understands where I get my inspiration.

Here is one of her stories:

Noah packed a HUGE suitcase for his week stay. He always wants to take our largest suitcase, and I let him this time because the trip was a week. Noah also insisted on packing himself, so he packed a bunch of toys and other things he didn't really need.

My Mom always clears out a drawer or two for visitors. She's a very gracious host. She cleared out one drawer for Noah because, well, he's only 3 (excuse me, almost 4), so he shouldn't need that much room, right?

So Noah and my Mom start putting things in the one drawer, and it quickly fills up because Noah packed a million things. Then Noah starts opening other drawers in the dresser, but they are full. He asks what is in the drawers, and my Mom explains that they are her sweaters and he doesn't need to unpack everything.

So my Mom goes about doing some things around the house, and she sees Noah coming out of the room with a heating pad. She figures he is going to show their heating pad to Grandpa. Then he comes by with some clothing. He has a very ornery grin on his face as if he's getting away with something.

She went into his room to discover all of his things unpacked in the drawers of the dresser. Then she went into her room and found a huge stack of her sweaters on her bed.

[ 4 comments ] ( 31 views )

The zoo

April 17, 2005, 4:35 pm

Lily and I went to the zoo today. Yes, I took an 8 month old to the zoo. It's pretty obvious that I really went for myself. I love the zoo. I go just about every week during the summer. Some of my friends make fun of me and say that the zoo is the same every time. My friend Julie goes every week too, so she knows the joy of the zoo. It's true, the zoo is pretty much the same. I like the predictability of it. I love the walk and seeing the animals. The zoo also changes depending on what animals are out and how close they get to you. Once I saw a baby porcupine crawl up a branch to her mother and start nursing. Another time three wolves were staring at me.

Lily enjoyed the zoo today. We even went on the train. She smiled and giggled the whole time:

We saw amazing things like...

Zebu mama and baby licking each other:

Human mama and baby smiling at each other:

Mama bear checking humans out:

Lily didn't notice the bear so much, but she thought her strap was interesting:

She also loved the breeze while we walked and thought her cup was amazing:

[ 3 comments ] ( 32 views )

Rough

April 13, 2005, 8:56 pm

You probably wouldn't guess it by looking at her sweet face, but Lily likes it rough. I discovered this one day when I was putting her on the bed, and her head hit the bed a little hard. She squealed in delight. She loves being thrown up in the air or dangled over her Papa's shoulders. She enjoys the interrogation game with her Uncle Troy more than Noah ever did. Who would have thought?

[ 5 comments ] ( 37 views )

MAMA!

April 12, 2005, 9:04 pm

Yep, Lily says Mama now. She only says it when she's tired or hungry or sad. I can't get her to say Mama when she's happy and content, but she does smile at me when I say, "Say Mama! Say Mama!" She even says Mama under her breath when she is most upset.

Lily is mobile now, and when she really wants me she comes looking for me. I do the dishes almost every evening, and Lily makes her way from the family room to the kitchen. She crawls as fast as she can to get to her Mama.

Lily starts off on her journey:

She makes it to the kitchen area:

My legs are in view:

Contact!

She stands up:

Hey, this isn't funny:

[ 3 comments ] ( 29 views )

Unexpected visitors

April 11, 2005, 3:37 pm

I was changing Lily's diaper this morning when Noah came running upstairs out of breath and yelled, "There are three men about to ring our doorbell!" He seemed excited and a little scared. "Three HUGE men, Mom!" So my stomach starts to turn as I try to think who these men could possibly be. I ask Noah, "You didn't open the door, did you?" Noah smiles really big, "NO! But I'm going to." (PAUSE) Noah explains, "It's Spiderman, Superman, and Batman!"

So he goes downstairs and "lets his friends in." And we have spent all day with these three men. They ate breakfast and lunch with us (did you know that Spiderman doesn't like vegetables either?) They keep talking about their upcoming birthday parties. Noah is trying to decide between a Spiderman, Batman, or Superman party (surprise). Turns out that Spiderman and Superman are having Scooby Doo parties, and Batman is having a Spongebob party.

I found myself actually imagining these superheroes sitting around talking to us.

Motherhood. It makes you a little crazy.

[ 7 comments ] ( 47 views )

Sibling rivalry

April 9, 2005, 10:41 pm

It exists, you know. When I was pregnant with Lily my brother-in-law Troy said, "You know, some day your kids are going to be fighting like crazy in the backseat." And I realized...oh, that's right. I hadn't even thought of it. One of the reasons I wanted another child was to give Noah a sibling and a playmate, but let's face it...all siblings fight.

But you don't think of that when you have a little baby. You bring home your newborn, and your older child holds the baby and smiles. The baby is really no threat to your older child. But then the baby gets mobile.

Let me show you what had been going on in my house:

Lily discovers Noah's train table:

Noah hords as many toys on the train table as possible:

Lily discovers Noah's toy box:

Noah isn't too thrilled. When Lily first started crawling he said, "She can't get my stuff though!"

So we work on sharing every day. I'm trying to get across the concept that if Noah isn't playing with the toy then it really is OK for Lily to play with it. So far it isn't going over so well.

But I still get lots of moments like this, and I cherish them:

[ 3 comments ] ( 36 views )

Our fashion show

April 8, 2005, 5:15 pm

Sometimes children can be so much fun. Lily was napping this morning, and I decided to get out my summer clothes from storage (it's going to be upper 70's here tomorrow). So I got out a box of my summer clothes and a box of Noah's summer clothes from last year. Noah was very excited about this. I went through his box and pulled out the shorts I thought might fit him this year.

Then I began trying on all of my shorts. I was so amazed that they fit (as I haven't worn them in 2 years due to pregnancy last summer) that I was very happy and excited. I would exclaim, "LOOK AT THESE, NOAH!" and do a fancy walk around the basement. Noah started feeding off my happiness and really getting into my fashion show. My favorite comment of his was when he yelled, "YOU LOOK LIKE SUPERMAN, MAMA!" Hey, I know that's a compliment when it comes from Noah. Sure I'm a woman in tan shorts, but if I look like superman to him then that's ok with me.

Then Noah decided to join my fashion show. He informed me that he knows how to get shorts on and off. So he took off his pants, and he started putting on shorts. He was so proud and walked around the basement with his little white legs showing. Oh, it killed me. It was the most fun I've had in days.

[ 3 comments ] ( 28 views )

Tactile

April 7, 2005, 11:32 am

Are all babies tactile? Maybe they are. I know that both of mine are. As an infant, Noah loved to touch things. He was comforted most by his special blanket, fringe on blankets, and my hair. I still catch him rubbing his blanket between his fingers when he's upset. When he was about a year old, I got my hair cut fairly short. I still remember his reaction. He looked so surprised with his wide eyes and a big smile. My hair was still long enough for him to play with, but he definitely noticed a difference.

Lily is very tactile as well. Her greatest comfort is my hair. When I feed her she starts groping around near my face looking for my hair. After she finally finds some hair to grab onto, I can hear her respirations slow down and see her eyes close. She is very soothed by touching my hair. During the week we spend in NYC with Janelle and Troy, Lily didn't want to sleep in the portable crib. So I let her sleep with me in the bed. I realized after a few nights that when she would wake up in the middle of the night upset she could easily be soothed back to sleep by touching my hair.

[ 3 comments ] ( 25 views )

Sick, sicker, more sicker, and sickest

April 4, 2005, 2:08 pm

This is the house of the sick. This morning I was in bed with Lily, and Noah woke up and joined us. At one point all three of us were coughing. Stay away!!!

I have seriously been sick off and on for 2 months. This winter has really gotten me. Noah is in preschool and brings home virus after virus, and my immune system is letting me down. I think all of the stay at home parents out there can relate--there is no rest for the sick parent. Of course I get breaks on the weekend, but I really feel that I should get a full day off to lie in bed and drink 7 up and eat ice cream (these are my comfort foods).

But it's April, right? It's Spring. It's almost Noah's birthday (according to him), so it can only get better.

Here's to healthier days.

HACK HACK.

[ 3 comments ] ( 35 views )